safety blanket
by MrsChaucersSquire
Summary: Gibbs regrets his choice of roommate. Can he teach Tony something about consequences and forgiveness? Slightly pre-NCIS and father/son.


"Safety Blanket"

Warnings: Slightly pre-NCIS and one swear word.

Thanks to Kejfe Blintz for a wonderful beta. She catches my silly mistakes, and I definitely appreciate it.

"DiNozzo, I'm trying to sleep!" Gibbs growled.

In response, Tony attempted lie still in the adjacent bed. He had been rolling around for an hour, and keeping both himself and his unhappy roommate awake.

Gibbs was currently regretting the fact that he had reserved only one room for the two of them. He and DiNozzo had only been working together a few months and he hadn't realized sharing a room was going to be a problem. In fact, sharing a room in the past few months had not been an issue. But for some reason tonight, Tony just couldn't stay still.

Unable to sleep because of his restless roommate, Gibbs mentally reviewed the day. The case they had come to Colorado to solve was solved. It had been rather easy to connect the missing lieutenant to his uncle's cabin in the woods, once they got his sister to admit she had seen him. However, the case had not been without flaws.

Tony had royally screwed up when he started threatening the lieutenant's sister with jail time if she wouldn't cooperate. It had been a veiled threat, and Tony had only meant to intimidate her. However, he hadn't gone by the book and he hadn't waited until they were someplace they could privately interrogate her. Instead, he had intimidated her in the presence of her father-in-law and her child. Unfortunately, her father-in-law was a lawyer and NCIS had nearly had a lawsuit on their hands due to Tony's carelessness.

When it happened, Gibbs was fuming. As punishment, he had made Tony hike up to the cabin hide-out while Gibbs rode the four-wheeler they had rented. They had captured the missing man and Gibbs had mercifully allowed Tony to ride back down the mountain. Tony had to be exhausted and sore. Gibbs wondered if the aching muscles were the cause of Tony's sleepless night. The younger man rolled over again in his bed, forcing Gibbs to respond. If he didn't help Tony he was never going to get any rest.

He rolled out of bed and reached for their mini-first aid kit. Quickly he grabbed two extra-strength Tylenol. He walked to the side of Tony's bed and tapped him on the shoulder holding out the pills.

Tony rolled over and looked at the pills. "Uh, I already had two, boss. You think I should have more?" he questioned.

"Do you need them?" Gibbs asked succinctly.

"Nah, I'm not really that sore." Tony answered quietly.

Gibbs raised his eyebrows questioning the truth behind Tony's statement.

"Really, boss. I'm not hurting. I've hiked a lot further than that for fun. I'm fine."

Gibbs wasn't sure that Tony was telling the truth, but he preceded to the place the pills back in their container anyway. He lay back down on his bed, and immediately heard Tony roll over once again.

"If you aren't in pain why the hell do you keep rolling over?" Gibbs insisted, clearly annoyed.

"Sorry, boss. I'll stop." Tony responded his voice uncharacteristically quiet.

Gibbs knew better than to think Tony was going to relax. He turned over to face the Italian's bed. He stared at Tony's back attempting to will him to explain. However, he quickly discovered the Gibbs glare was far less affective when pointed towards someone's back. Tony wiggled a bit more readjusting the blanket.

"DiNozzo, what's wrong!? And if you say nothing, we are leaving right now so you can re-hike that mountain."

Tony slowly rolled to face his boss. He sighed quietly before speaking. "I'm really sorry I screwed up today boss."

_Is that what this is about?_ Gibbs wondered. He responded firmly "Yeah, you screwed up, and then you dealt with the consequences. End of story. Now go to sleep." Gibbs ordered.

"Got it boss." Tony responded, but with far less than his normal enthusiasm.

This time Tony lay on his back and really focused on not moving. It almost worked, but now Gibbs was far too aware of Tony's unease. Suddenly Tony sighed and rolled to face his boss.

"Spit it out DiNozzo" Gibbs encouraged.

"Why aren't you mad? You should be mad! I screwed up!"

"You paid the price. It's over. What else do you want me to do? Fire you?"

"No. Yes. I don't know! But you should be pissed."

"I'm not. You made a mess and you cleaned it up. You gonna do that again?"

"No."

"Then we are done. You learned what you needed to."

"That's it?"

"That's it. I've forgiven you DiNozzo. You haven't forgiven yourself."

Tony suddenly flipped on his back, sighing loudly. The conversation was over, but Tony was still unsettled.

Gibbs was frustrated again. Tony's current guilt was unreasonable. He wondered what had caused the present attitude and he reason that had something to do with Tony's parents. At this point he had heard very little about Tony's family but what he had heard was negative. It was likely that Tony's parents had been angry and unforgiving with the young mischievous Anthony DiNozzo.

Gibbs sat up suddenly, startling his roommate. Tony tilted his head slightly attempting to see what his boss was doing. Unfortunately, Gibbs back was to him.

Tony didn't have to wait long to find out what his boss was doing. He was shocked to see Gibbs get up and head towards his bed. Roughly Gibbs took Tony's hand and opened it. He shoved a piece of paper in Tony's palm and closed Tony's finger around the note. Just as suddenly Gibbs returned to his bed.

Tony turned slightly away from his boss attempting to catch the beam of moonlight peaking though the window. After reading it he was slightly confused. "Boss?" He asked.

"Read it until you can sleep and quit squirming so I can get some rest."

"Got it boss." Tony responded. He re-read the note still in his hand. His boss's hand writing and the words on the hotel note paper calmed him until he fell asleep.

_____________________________

The next morning came too early, as it always does. The NCIS investigators were catching an early flight out and both took quick showers preparing for their day. Strikingly, Tony offered to go first and while he was in the bathroom, Gibbs began collecting their belongings. He spotted the crumpled note on Tony's bed and quickly scoped it up. Slightly embarrassed he read the words.

_I forgive you, Tony. Forgive yourself._

He shook his head and tossed the note in the trash, surprised that his idea had worked so well.

Tony quickly finished his preparation and Gibbs took over the bathroom. Gibbs was even faster and within minutes they were both ready to leave the hotel room.

Quickly, the lead investigator did one last survey of the room and was surprised to notice something was off. He realized the note he had dropped in the trash only minutes before was missing. His eyebrows crinkled for only a second but he walked out to the room straight faced.

He thought it was a little strange that Tony had fished the note out of the trash. Nevertheless, he decided that if Tony felt the need to keep the note, he wouldn't stop him. Maybe it would help his agent sleep better at night, and perhaps it would heal some of the wounds of his childhood.

Note: Real forgiveness = 2 Corinthians 2:5-11


End file.
